Altered Posh Pink and Orange Circle Altered Tin Can

This is one of my faves!

At first I didn't like the way the project's going, so I took a day's break and then revisited it. Afterwards, things just started to gel and this ended up being one of my faves.

Materials: I used My Mind's Eye's Tres Jolie line for the body and Heidi Grace patterned paper on the top. Inside paper - specialty paper from Paper Sources



I also used ribbons on edges to partition the lid and body.

I affixed ribbons, sayings, buttons, brads for embellishment and to hide the paper cuts caused by scrap-patching to fill-in vacant segments because i didn't have enough paper!

The inside I covered with striped pink and brown pattern paper from Paper Source. Of course, other scraps were recycled to create matching tags and cards. TFL!






Tip: I think i'll stick to squares and rectangles for altered art. The circle tin was pretty unruly to wrap at the beginning!

Altered Art: Hip Skull Girly Paint Can

The fastest altered art i've done. I had only 15 mins to do this for an on the spot altered art contest because I was late to the local NSD gig. But I was one of the 3 winners and received goodies for the contest.

Here are some tips to do this under 15 minutes:

1) To hide the imperfect alignment of paper agains the edge of the can inside, I put a sticker border on the outside! This can is a bit harder to work with because you have to put the design inside the clear platic can. It's eventually cool because your work gets protected.

2) To help with organization, have pre-sorted and matching scrapbook plain and patterned papers, embellishments planned, sayings and quotes. Sometimes the hardest part is not the technique and execution, but the design, theme, and composition.

Materials: Creative Imaginations papers, stickers, ribbons. Other ribbons from various companies.


see matching girly gift baskets on affiliate company: http://www.dreamweavergiftbaskets.com/

Altered Art: Floral and Stripes Memory Box Ensemble

This is a wooden box with handle that I altered. I originally made one for a swap hosted by a friend, but I missed that box so i made another one when when my friend and i hooked up to scrap. I got inspired some more after she left, so I made additional wooden gift bag, cards, bookmarks, and tags from scraps. I don't like throwing scraps aways. It's amazing what you can do with scraps!

Question from a fellow scraper: Did this take only 15 minutes also to make?

Answer: No, not 15 minutes! In between the chats with my friend, it took longer. If i focus, I can do the outside design in 30 minutes. the tags, i can do in 5 minutes or less. I pretty much have some standard lay-outs in my brain so i just recycle the lay-outs. The wooden purse/gift bag is so small and really easy to do in 15 - 30 minutes. don't try to cover or paint the inside - it takes too long! cards sometimes take longer, depending on how complicated Iwant the design to be. Also, there's more design surface on it. so maybe 30 minutes also. It all depends on my mood. if I'm in a rut, I redo things several times and that can take hours!

Materials: Daisy D's Purple and Floral Stripes Memory. Wooden Boxes from Michaels, Doodlebug alpha stickers

Altered Art: Yellow Floral Decor Canisters

K & Co papers (Hodges Line) were on sale so I grabbed several and made coordinating altered canisters and round boxes for future summery parties. The canisters will hold potpourri and candles. The big box can hold treats such as candy, party favors, and much more, I'm sure. For now, the set functions nicely as a home decor in my lovely craft room. The small canisters are old crafts containers. The big box was a gift box for a china.

Altered Art Passion: Cherry and Vines Lunchbox Ensemble

i've recently discovered the joy of altered art and i'm addicted to it now! i got some chipboards, paper mache's, wooden boxes, etc. to alter. i like expanding my repertoire of skills pertinent to paper crafts. here are some stuff i recently made. what do you think?

this is my cheery and sunny cherry ensemble. dh and i were grocery shopping at wholefoods one day (love this healthy store - but prices are incredibly prohibitive!) and bought tons of cherries which is one of my fave fruits. he bought me some fresh flowers also. what a nice dh, huh? i went home and made a fruit and flower arrangement. flowers, fruits, paper, art, bright colors always have a way of perking me up when i'm feeling blue which has been annoyingly quite often. i was inspired by my cherries and daisies arrangement to do an altered art using a tin lunchbox. i had extra scraps and being the frugal cropper, i then did some matching cards and tags.

i got good compliments from fellow scrappers and they also asked me some tips on how i "perfectly" cover my altered projects and what's the best adhesive to use. my answer was i approximate the length of the paper i need to cut then just start trimming edges off until i get the bext alignment. i also discovered using acrylic paints for the hard to reach places. i kept the front plain b/c i was lazy to cut around the edges of the metal clips (usually "professionals" unscrew the metal tags but that's too much work. i use pointed q-tips to help me navigate through the tricky nooks and crannies parts. the ribbon around is really a trick to mask smudges.

i'm really picky with craftsmanship so i rework areas until they look near perfect. the adhesive i like to use is glue stick., it's cheaper, lasts longer and can fill in hard to reach spaces. also, have a bone folder handy. the pointed side is good to "tuck in" the edges and the flat side helps me smooth out the air bubbles. the paper is from chatterbox's scrap walls, mistletoe vine. i also used some matching cherry stickers set from creative imaginations which go well with this line.

click here to view the video remix

Back from a Short Respite

glad to have the inspiration again to start posting on my blog. sometimes i feel stuck in a rut and the creative juices just don't flow as freely. but when i get the inspiration and spark, i feel very creative and productive. okay time to upload some new info and work samples. tfl!